WALL? NuTS!
Prez caves on threat to shut gov’t over border $
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday night appeared to back off his threat to risk a government shutdown if he didn’t get his demand for a down payment on a border wall with Mexico, removing the major barrier to keeping the government open at the end of this week.
Trump told a gathering of conservative journalists at the White House that he was open to fighting for border wall funding this fall rather than insisting on tacking money for it onto a package to keep the government open. A White House official confirmed the remark.
Capitol Hill lawmakers had been working steadily toward a compromise over the past month, and both Democrats and Republicans thought they’d be able to reach agreement on a deal by the Friday deadline.
But when Trump and his staff threatened to dig in their heels on a demand for border wall funding late last week, it raised the real possibility of the first government shutdown in history during oneparty control of Washington.
Trump’s comments appeared to erase that concern, though a White House official suggested Monday night that the President is still looking to get money for the wall in the 2017 budget that needs to be wrapped on Friday.
“The President will get funding to start in Fiscal Year 17 and will get more in Fiscal Year 18,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer emailed the Daily News.
Senate and House Republicans had suggested in recent days that they weren’t ready to go to war over wall funding, instead suggesting that Trump accept a Democratic compromise to give some more money toward border security in exchange for federal funds to keep Obamacare functioning.
“If you make it about better border security, the President’s in good shape, but if you make it about actually building a 2,200-mile wall, that’s a bridge too far, to mix metaphors,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said to reporters earlier Monday.
“I think he’s trying to be helpful, and he’s also trying to get his agenda like anybody, like we all do,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), another committee member, told The News.
“I think it’s a question now of what’s doable. That’s the question,” said Shelby.
Democrats celebrated the news, indicating they’ll now be able to strike a deal.
“It’s good for the country that President Trump is taking the wall off the table in these negotiations. Now the bipartisan and bicameral negotiators can continue working on the outstanding issues,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.